“THE MOST POPULAR AMERICAN POET OF THE 19TH CENTURY”: HANDSOMELY BOUND AND FINELY ILLUSTRATED SET OF LONGFELLOW'S COMPLETE WORKS, WITH ORIGINAL LETTER TIPPED IN

LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth. The Complete Writings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Ten volumes. WITH: LONGFELLOW, Samuel (ed). Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Two volumes. Boston and New York / London: Houghton, Mifflin /Keegan Paul, Trench, 1904, 1886. Together, thirteen volumes. Octavo, modern full black morocco, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated covers and spines, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut. $8500.

“Edition de Luxe” of the writings of Longfellow, number 728 of only 750 copies, with original autograph letter signed tipped in, frontispieces portrait in each volume, and 76 illustrations (three by Frederic Remington).

"The most popular American poet of the 19th century," Longfellow produced a number of poems that remain popular favorites, such as "Evangeline," "Hiawatha," and "Paul Revere's Ride" (Encyclopedia of Literature, 693). This deluxe set features Longfellow's poetical works in six volumes, prose works in two volumes, and his esteemed translation of Dante's Divine Comedy in the final three volumes. The original letter tipped into Volume I of the Poems, reads, Nahant, Aug 7 1871. My Dear Sir, I beg leave to acknowledge your letter and account of W. Green's First Vol. Please send me a cheque for the amount due to me; and I think it would be well to send cop of account and cheque for the other to [?] Wton. Greene East Greenwich; who is joint holder with me of these copies of Vol. 1. Yours truly, Henry W. Longfellow. P.S. I Have you had time to make up your mind about W. Greene's … View of the Amer. Revolution"? The historian George Washington Greene was friends with Longfellow for over 50 years, with Longfellow at one point purchasing a house for his close friend; Greene published A Historical View of the American Revolution in 1865 and The German Element in the War of American Independence in 1876. The Complete Writings was first published in this eleven-volume format by Houghton, Mifflin in 1886. With color versions of 12 illustrations, eight of them bound as additional frontispieces in the first eight volumes. Offered here with Samuel Longfellow's Life of this brother, uniformly bound to match the other eleven volumes. BAL 12781; see also 12259.

Fine condition.